Vehicles are often equipped with onboard sensors for determining various environmental conditions surrounding the vehicle. The sensors are generally capable of measuring particular conditions, such as, for example, position and intensity of the sun (relative to the vehicle orientation), ambient light from artificial source(s), temperature, humidity, etc. Once the measurement is taken, the sensor may display the result(s) to the operator, or it may be used to control a vehicle subsystem in an effort to alter a condition in response to the measurement. Sensor measurements may, in some instances, benefit from filtering, via control software, to substantially avoid false readings and/or a rapid system response to short duration events.
As environmental conditions (external to the vehicle) change, or at any time, an operator may desire to alter the vehicle functionality. In some instances, however, the control switch or mechanism of vehicle functionality may not be accessible to the vehicle operator.
Further, vehicles are often equipped with systems and/or subsystems that may be configured according to the operator's preference by manipulating onboard controls, voice-activated controls, and the like. In some instances it may be inconvenient for an operator to adjust the onboard controls. For example, an operator may not be able to read or understand the symbols of the onboard controls or an operator may have a physical limitation that makes it difficult or inconvenient to adjust the onboard controls.
As such, it would be desirable to provide a vehicle system for determining conditions surrounding the vehicle and/or for altering vehicle lighting configuration(s) without the use of onboard sensors.